Suva Reka Trial in Trouble
Reports of delays and witness intimidation overshadow trial of Serbs accused of war crimes against ethnic Albanians.
Suva Reka Trial in Trouble
Reports of delays and witness intimidation overshadow trial of Serbs accused of war crimes against ethnic Albanians.
On March 26, survivors and relatives remembered the ninth anniversary of the massacre of 48 Albanian civilians in the Kosovo town of Suva Reka.
Although almost a decade has passed since the killings, there is still no end in sight for the trial of eight Serb policemen accused of what was perhaps the greatest atrocity committed during the Kosovo conflict of the late Nineties.
The trial, which began on October 2, 2006, was brought to a halt and had to start again after one of the judges on the case was replaced amid rumours of political interference. Meanwhile, prosecutors and defence lawyers each accuse the other of slowing down proceedings.
All but one of the victims killed in Suva Reka nine years ago were members of the Berisha family. The dead included a one-year-old baby and a 100-year-old woman.
On trial are the former commander of the 37th special police unit from Nis Radoslav Mitrovic; the ex-Suva Reka police commander Radojko Repanovic and his deputy Nenad Jovanovic; former policemen Sladan Cukaric, Miroslav Petkovic, Ramiz Papic and Zoran Petkovic; and ex-member of the state security service in charge of the Prizren area Milorad Nisavic.
They stand charged with killing 48 civilians. The victims were allegedly herded into a cafe in Suva Reka, and the accused and the accused are said to have thrown hand grenades inside, before shooting those who survived the blast. The indictment against them is the first time war crimes charges have been brought in any Serbian court against senior police officers in relation to events in Kosovo.
The bodies of some of the victims were among more than 800 discovered in a mass grave outside Belgrade in 2001.
Dzevalj Berisha is one of the few members of the Berisha family to survive the slaughter. The music teacher from Suva Reka said he has tried to find the rest of the bodies. However, to this day, 16 corpses are still missing.
On the anniversary of the massacre, Serbia’s war crimes prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic asked prosecutor working on this case Mioljub Vitorovic when the trial would be complete. He received only a vague response.
Vukcevic’s spokesman Bruno Vekaric said prosecutors should not be blamed for the prolonged proceedings. According to him, it “seems that only the prosecution is in a hurry to close the case of Suva Reka.
“The defence appears to be buying time, hoping that the accused won’t even be convicted, in the end.”
The spokesman said the defence had slowed down proceedings by repeatedly asking for new witnesses to be called, “who, in the prosecutor’s opinion, have nothing to say which would be really relevant for this case.
“The [defence] are constantly asking that new facts be established, no matter how minor or irrelevant for the case they are. They just keep questioning even those facts that are obvious and indisputable.”
However, Belgrade lawyer Goran Petronijevic, who represents Mitrovic in this case, disputed Vekaric’s claims.
"The fact is that there have been many witnesses in the Suva Reka case, but the proceedings have been too slow mainly because of the prosecutors,” he said.
“They question the witnesses for hours, wearing everyone down – the defence, the witnesses and the trial chamber.”
The trial was already significantly delayed when in September 2007, almost a year after it began, Judge Gordana Petrovic was taken off the case. Under Serbian law, when a judge is replaced, proceedings must start from the beginning, including re-reading the indictment and hearing witnesses’ testimonies again.
Although the official explanation of President of the District Court Sinisa Vazic was that Petrovic had been removed from the Suva Reka case because her mandate had expired, the judge has claimed the real reason was political pressure.
“I found out that [Vazic] had literally received an order from one foreign embassy and one non-governmental organisation to remove me from this case otherwise financial support that was assigned to the district court would be taken away,” said Petrovic.
At the time, there was speculation in the Belgrade media that the judge had fallen from grace after she apparently failed to point to a connection between the war crimes suspects and top officials of the Serbian army in the Scorpions trial.
In April 2007, the Belgrade War Crimes Court handed down verdicts on five members of the Scorpions military unit that was filmed killing six Muslims near Srebrenica in July 1995. Two of the former paramilitaries were given 20 years in prison, one received 13, a fourth got five, while a fifth was acquitted.
While Petrovic’s claims were never proven, two other members of the trial chamber in the Suva Reka case were not removed even thought their mandate expired at the same time as hers.
Vekaric said the political crisis which erupted in Serbia following Kosovo’s proclamation of independence on February 17 has also affected the Suva Reka trial.
Last month, Serbian president Boris Tadic dissolved parliament and called elections after Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica – angry that European states had recognised the independent province – refused to back moves towards European integration.
While Serbian police are obliged to investigate Serb suspects accused of war crimes against Kosovo Albanians, Vekaric said that the situation with Kosovo meant it would be much harder to get police cooperation.
The prosecutor’s spokesman said there were suspicions that Serb witnesses in the Suva Reka case – mainly former Serb policemen testifying against their colleagues – were coming under “huge pressure” not to testify. Kosovo Albanians were already reluctant to testify in the case, because they don't trust a Serb court to provide a fair trial.
Vekaric said that some witnesses appeared to be clamming up when giving testimony, while others had altered their original testimonies.
“Nothing dramatic has happened yet, but we can see the difference in communication between lawyers and some witnesses compared to the time when trial began,” he said.
Milos Teodorovic is an IWPR-trained journalist.
Although almost a decade has passed since the killings, there is still no end in sight for the trial of eight Serb policemen accused of what was perhaps the greatest atrocity committed during the Kosovo conflict of the late Nineties.
The trial, which began on October 2, 2006, was brought to a halt and had to start again after one of the judges on the case was replaced amid rumours of political interference. Meanwhile, prosecutors and defence lawyers each accuse the other of slowing down proceedings.
All but one of the victims killed in Suva Reka nine years ago were members of the Berisha family. The dead included a one-year-old baby and a 100-year-old woman.
On trial are the former commander of the 37th special police unit from Nis Radoslav Mitrovic; the ex-Suva Reka police commander Radojko Repanovic and his deputy Nenad Jovanovic; former policemen Sladan Cukaric, Miroslav Petkovic, Ramiz Papic and Zoran Petkovic; and ex-member of the state security service in charge of the Prizren area Milorad Nisavic.
They stand charged with killing 48 civilians. The victims were allegedly herded into a cafe in Suva Reka, and the accused and the accused are said to have thrown hand grenades inside, before shooting those who survived the blast. The indictment against them is the first time war crimes charges have been brought in any Serbian court against senior police officers in relation to events in Kosovo.
The bodies of some of the victims were among more than 800 discovered in a mass grave outside Belgrade in 2001.
Dzevalj Berisha is one of the few members of the Berisha family to survive the slaughter. The music teacher from Suva Reka said he has tried to find the rest of the bodies. However, to this day, 16 corpses are still missing.
On the anniversary of the massacre, Serbia’s war crimes prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic asked prosecutor working on this case Mioljub Vitorovic when the trial would be complete. He received only a vague response.
Vukcevic’s spokesman Bruno Vekaric said prosecutors should not be blamed for the prolonged proceedings. According to him, it “seems that only the prosecution is in a hurry to close the case of Suva Reka.
“The defence appears to be buying time, hoping that the accused won’t even be convicted, in the end.”
The spokesman said the defence had slowed down proceedings by repeatedly asking for new witnesses to be called, “who, in the prosecutor’s opinion, have nothing to say which would be really relevant for this case.
“The [defence] are constantly asking that new facts be established, no matter how minor or irrelevant for the case they are. They just keep questioning even those facts that are obvious and indisputable.”
However, Belgrade lawyer Goran Petronijevic, who represents Mitrovic in this case, disputed Vekaric’s claims.
"The fact is that there have been many witnesses in the Suva Reka case, but the proceedings have been too slow mainly because of the prosecutors,” he said.
“They question the witnesses for hours, wearing everyone down – the defence, the witnesses and the trial chamber.”
The trial was already significantly delayed when in September 2007, almost a year after it began, Judge Gordana Petrovic was taken off the case. Under Serbian law, when a judge is replaced, proceedings must start from the beginning, including re-reading the indictment and hearing witnesses’ testimonies again.
Although the official explanation of President of the District Court Sinisa Vazic was that Petrovic had been removed from the Suva Reka case because her mandate had expired, the judge has claimed the real reason was political pressure.
“I found out that [Vazic] had literally received an order from one foreign embassy and one non-governmental organisation to remove me from this case otherwise financial support that was assigned to the district court would be taken away,” said Petrovic.
At the time, there was speculation in the Belgrade media that the judge had fallen from grace after she apparently failed to point to a connection between the war crimes suspects and top officials of the Serbian army in the Scorpions trial.
In April 2007, the Belgrade War Crimes Court handed down verdicts on five members of the Scorpions military unit that was filmed killing six Muslims near Srebrenica in July 1995. Two of the former paramilitaries were given 20 years in prison, one received 13, a fourth got five, while a fifth was acquitted.
While Petrovic’s claims were never proven, two other members of the trial chamber in the Suva Reka case were not removed even thought their mandate expired at the same time as hers.
Vekaric said the political crisis which erupted in Serbia following Kosovo’s proclamation of independence on February 17 has also affected the Suva Reka trial.
Last month, Serbian president Boris Tadic dissolved parliament and called elections after Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica – angry that European states had recognised the independent province – refused to back moves towards European integration.
While Serbian police are obliged to investigate Serb suspects accused of war crimes against Kosovo Albanians, Vekaric said that the situation with Kosovo meant it would be much harder to get police cooperation.
The prosecutor’s spokesman said there were suspicions that Serb witnesses in the Suva Reka case – mainly former Serb policemen testifying against their colleagues – were coming under “huge pressure” not to testify. Kosovo Albanians were already reluctant to testify in the case, because they don't trust a Serb court to provide a fair trial.
Vekaric said that some witnesses appeared to be clamming up when giving testimony, while others had altered their original testimonies.
“Nothing dramatic has happened yet, but we can see the difference in communication between lawyers and some witnesses compared to the time when trial began,” he said.
Milos Teodorovic is an IWPR-trained journalist.
